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Ying-shih Yu selected for Kluge Prize

Posted November 15, 2006; 08:34 p.m.

by Ruth Stevens

Ying-shih Yu, Princeton's Gordon Wu '58 Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies, has been named the co-winner of the third John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.

The prize rewards accomplishment in the wide range of disciplines not
covered by the Nobel prizes, including history, philosophy, politics,
anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and
humanities, and linguistics.

Yu will share the award with John Hope Franklin, professor emeritus of
history at Duke University. Each will receive half of the $1 million
prize. They will be honored at a ceremony on Dec. 5 at the Library of
Congress and will return to the library next year to present a
scholarly discussion of their work.

Yu was recognized for playing a pioneering role in bringing previously
neglected, major aspects of Chinese history into the mainstream of the
scholarship and public consciousness. One of the world's authorities on
the Tang Dynasty, he has researched and written extensively on every
period of Chinese history, from ancient to modern. He is the author of
some 30 books that span more than 2,000 years of history.

"Dr. Yu's scholarship has been remarkably deep and widespread," said
Librarian of Congress James Billington, a member of Princeton's class
of 1950. "His impact on the study of Chinese history, thought and
culture has reached across many disciplines, time periods and issues,
examining in a profound way major questions and deeper truths about
human nature."

Recipients of the prize, endowed by Library of Congress benefactor John
W. Kluge, are selected by Billington in consultation with a panel of
distinguished scholars.

Yu joined the Princeton faculty in 1987 and retired in 2001. This fall,
he delivered the inaugural address of the Frederick W. Mote Memorial
Lecture Series on campus.

During his academic career, which began in 1962, Yu also taught at
Harvard, Yale and the University of Michigan. He served concurrently as
president of New Asia College, Hong Kong, and vice chancellor of the
Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1973 to 1975. In his early 40s, Yu
was elected to be a lifetime member in Academia Sinica, the most
distinguished academic institution in Taiwan. He was recently elected a
member of the American Philosophical Society.

Yu is known not only for his scholarship but also for his sympathy for
the democracy movement in mainland China and his support for young
refugees who left after the suppression of protesters in Tiananmen
Square. Despite his outspoken criticism of Chinese Communist policy,
most of his scholarly writings have now been published in China,
including a recent 10-volume collection of his Chinese-language
works.